The present invention relates to a shoulder rest for violin or the like capable of improving tone quality, and more particularly to a shoulder rest that is fixed to a back of a string instrument, such as a violin or the like, and is able make the musical sound produced by playing the violin or the like even more sonorous and sweeter.
A violin player would usually rest a rear end of the violin on one shoulder bone to bear one chin against the violin while playing it. To reduce the discomfort at the shoulder area being compressed by a hard body of the violin, it is a common practice to place a shoulder rest at a lower rear end of the violin.
Such shoulder rest for violin or the like basically includes an elongated base configured for fitly bearing against the player""s shoulder bone, and two spaced binding elements provided at two upper outer ends of the elongated base. The binding elements are separately tightened to outer edges of the violin or the like near the rear end thereof to fixedly connect the shoulder rest to the violin. To enable an ideal timbre effect, the elongated base is generally made of a wooden material, such as rose wood. Meanwhile, since a lower surface of the elongated base is directly pressed against the player""s shoulder bone area, it is a common practice to fixedly attach a layer of air-permeable soft pad to the lower surface of the base, so that the shoulder rest is more comfortable for use.
To match with different configurations of violins or the like, as well as players"" different preferences, the two spaced binding elements provided on the elongated bases of most currently available shoulder rests have adjusting means assembled thereto in advance, so that the two binding elements may be adjusted to space from each other by different distances depending on the body configuration of the violin or the like and the actual needs in use.
Canadian Patent No. 2,262,290 granted to Farha and owned by Canadian firm of The Kun Shoulder Rest Inc. discloses a separating device for the binding elements disclosed in Canadian Patent No. 1,290,961 granted to Kun.
However, most existing shoulder rests for violin or the like are designed to enable easy association with the body of the violin or the like and easy adjustment of a distance between the binding elements. All these designs are obviously of little help in terms of the function of violin or the like.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a shoulder rest for violin or the like that is able to resonate with strings of the violin or the like and thereby making the musical sound produced by playing the violin or the like has even more sonorous and sweeter tone quality.
To achieve the above and other objects, the shoulder rest for violin or the like according to the present invention includes at least one elongated base, and binding elements provided at two upper outer ends of the elongated base for fixing the latter to a back of the violin or the like. The elongated base is provided with a plurality of differently sized through holes corresponding to a plurality of strings provided on a top of the violin or the like, and the through holes corresponding to bass strings are diametrically larger than the through holes corresponding to treble strings.